MADISON TOWNSHIP — Despite going toe-to-toe with one of Northeast Ohio’s best teams for most of the night, the Madison boys had the game get away from them in just a few fleeting moments.
A series of miscues and mistakes to start the third quarter did in the Blue Streaks, resulting in a 67-54 loss at home Friday night to Cleveland Benedictine.
Trailing by just three points at halftime, Madison (2-1) had possession to start the third quarter, but the Blue Streaks turned the ball over three times in the first minute and saw Benedictine extend the lead to 10 points, a seemingly insurmountable deficit against the experienced Bengals (2-0).
“For us, the game was lost in the first four possession of the second half. We turned it over a couple times, twice because we ran the wrong play,” Madison coach Pat Moran said. “Those first four possessions killed us. Any time that team can get up three possessions on you, it’s tough to come back.”
Benedictine’s junior duo of Derek Jackson and Cameron Wright led the way for the Bengals, the Division II regional runner-up a year ago. Jackson scored a game-high 28 points, including a 3-pointer with five minutes to go in the game that eliminated any hopes of a Madison comeback.
Wright, who is committed to Ohio State, added 16 points, while fellow junior Nick Hurney added 13 off the bench for the Bengals.
The two teams seemingly traded baskets on every possession early on, with six ties and five lead changes in the first quarter alone. With Jackson and Wright doing it from the outside for Benedictine, Madison was getting its points down low with senior Dan Heidenreich and trailed by just two, 21-19.
Heidenreich scored 10 of his team-high 18 points in the first eight minutes and was the only Madison player in double figures. But with the Bengals focusing their attention on the Blue Streaks’ 6-foot-7 scorer, seniors Bryan Hill and Jordan Sandidge and junior Kenny Janz all hit key buckets to stay within striking distance. It was a 33-30 game, in favor of Benedictine, at the break.
“They sat on (Heidenreich) quite a bit. He’s obviously our go-to guy and tonight they did a good job of packing it in,” Moran said. “And that also affected Bryan Hill who usually gets to the basket pretty well for us.”
But the Bengals opened the third quarter with a 7-0 run in the first minute and outscored the Blue Streaks 17-10 in the period. After connecting on half its shots from the field in the first half, Madison shot just 34.8 percent (8-of-23) in the second. The Blue Streaks also committed 19 turnovers, but did outrebound Benedictine 35-28, led by Janz’s 11 boards.
Madison also hit just 14-of-25 from the foul line (56 percent).
“I thought for the most part we hung in there. We can’t complain about the effort, but it was the execution that got us. We’re not into the moral victories too much,” Moran said. “We have some things we have to continue to improve on. We have to turn our attention to the PAC. These games are great to see where we stack up with the better teams in the area, but we’ve got a couple big ones coming up in the league.”
Tirotta is a freelance writer from Ashtabula.
Sports
One bad stretch does in Madison
Blue Streaks hang with Benedictine, but pay for short span of miscues
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Riverside sneaks past Edgewood
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Madison rolls past Geneva
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Boys tourney returning to county
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Scholastic Statistics:
WRESTLING
NON-CONFERENCE
Riverside 31, Edgewood 28
at Edgewood -
Scholastic Schedule:
FRIDAY, FEB. 10
Boys Basketball
n Lakeside at Madison
n Conneaut at Edgewood
n Liberty at Jefferson (WFUN)
n South at Geneva
n PV at Bloomfield
n Grand Valley at Southington
n Riverside at North
n Harvey at Perry -
PV prevails
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The pair delivered exactly that and the Lakers pulled off the win, 37-36. -
Eagles bounce back
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